Have a drink, you know it always makes you think
by everlastingwhy
Summary: Absolute fluff that takes place after Save Henry aboard the Jolly Roger and Killian had given up his room to Henry. Emma helps Killian find a place to sleep.


Emma looked down at her ratty shirt and tried to count how many days she had been wearing it. She pretended to be incredibly interested by her immediate surroundings, leaning against one of the rails on the aft while waiting for everyone to clear the deck and head down to their respective quarters. After listening intently for the final set of feet to reach the lower deck, she let out a deep sigh. "Operation Cobra Rescue complete. Mission accomplished," Emma whispered to herself under her breath.

"Talking to yourself there, lass?" she heard behind her the familiar pirate's lilt. The corner of her mouth turned up ever so slightly before she turned around.

"I thought I was the only one who talked to myself alone on a boat," he continued, advancing towards her slowly while glancing up at the sails to admire their achievement of raising a successful Pegasus sail. As she followed his gaze upwards, he looked back at her and smiled, watching her look over the sails of the ship. He wasn't sure if she was impressed by the Pegasus sail or simply observing, but it made him think of the first time he witnessed his ship fly and his smile widened. She quickly noticed he was watching her and darted her eyes back at him, then out towards the sea. She took another deep breath in,

"I was just…I'm glad to be heading home, is all," she replied and leaned against the side of the ship. He moved closer to her but was afraid to overstep, so he settled against the side of the ship about an arm's length away from her.

Emma seemed to be transfixed by the clouds around them and Hook stole glances at her while she was in her trance. He enjoyed seeing her so relaxed and calm after the ordeal they had all been through. She shifted her weight onto her far foot, putting more distance between them, and looked at him.

"Pink sheets, huh?" she asked, trying not to crack too big of a smile. Hook let out an amused "hmph" and rubbed his knuckle along his lower lip. He glanced up at her and smiled, slightly caught off guard,

"Those were the only clean set I had from— those aren't—"

"Laundry mishap?" she suggested and then stopped. "Do pirates do laundry, because you seem to always be wearing the same clothes."

"Trying to undress me, Swan?" He jabbed back at her finally stepping into pace with her. Her jaw went slack in surprise.

"I'm simply asking about the availability of laundry services aboard your ship," she answered feeling a bit dizzy, almost tipsy. They hadn't even had any celebratory rum upon rescuing Henry, though, everyone just went to sleep. Why did she feel like this? She looked down at her ratty tank top as if to provide a reason for asking about laundry. Why were they talking about laundry? Pink sheets, right.

"Laundry is a tad problematic aboard a flying ship, but if you want to get out of your dirty clothes, I won't stop you, Swan," the pirate retorted looking her up and down in admiration of how beautiful she would be even if she wore beggars rags for the rest of eternity. Emma looked up at him to see his brows furrowed together in contemplation of something that seemed too far away for him to reach, like he lost something he wasn't sure he could get back. She noted the tone of his face and straightened herself out of that strange mood she had felt. Their eyes met and they both instantly looked down.

"Your son is settled in safe in my pink sheets, then?" he asked finally after a beat of them both staring at the deck. She let out a breath and looked up at him with a smile,

"Yeah I think it calls for a celebratory toast," she replied gesturing towards his hip flask of rum. He licked his lips subconsciously as he reached to open it. Emma put her hand out to open it for him but he had already brought it up to his teeth when her hand collided awkwardly between his hand and stubbly chin. She acted as if her hand had been struck by lightning, jerking it away and he laughed, uncorking the bottle with his teeth. She shook out her hand awkwardly in efforts to erase the accident as he realized he didn't have a glass in which to pour her drink. He gesticulated such with the bottle in his hand and cork in his mouth until Emma realized what he meant. He re-corked the bottle and verbally continued his gestures,

"I have glasses down in my quarters but your son—"

"Henry's in your room," she finished. Only then did she realize that Killian had given up his place to sleep for the night for Henry. She looked up and smiled in gratitude for his selflessness.

"I keep a glass of water by my bed. I could use that," she said abruptly almost standing on her tip-toes in a desperate offer of accommodation to him and pointed to the stairs down below deck.

* * *

Emma led Hook awkwardly into her room. He had been in there before when they had toasted to Neal, in memoriam. He absent-mindedly sat down on the nearest bunk by the table, when he noticed a water glass on the table next to him. She saw Hook take a spot on her bed and pour a fair share of rum into the glass. She was still standing trying to figure out what to do with a pirate on her bed, when he handed her the glass of rum and then his bottle up toasting.

"To returning your lad safely home," he said with a smitten grin on his face, almost beaming at Emma. She couldn't help but smile back at him. After all this, everything each person went through on the island, both individually and together, she was glad it was over. She was glad they were going back to Storybrooke, with everyone in tact, and with extra passengers.

"To Operation Cobra Rescue completed," she said quickly before throwing the rum back. Hook looked up at her, confused by what she said, but took a healthy swig nonetheless. They both swallowed back the rum and smiled at each other.

"Operation Cobra…what was that you said?" Hook asked intent on learning the answer. Emma realized he didn't know of Henry's inventive naming conventions and she chortled, choking back the rum still in her throat. There was so much he didn't know about Henry, about her. And yet Hook captained a ship of people to rescue her son, while barely knowing a thing about him, risking his life for her boy. It was truly selfless what he had done, going along with their plans and helping in every way possible.

"It's what Henry would have called this, uh, this mission. Operation Cobra Rescue. He an imaginative kid," she answered, looking down at her empty glass and pausing for a moment, "we couldn't have completed the mission without you, Hook. Thank you, really." She looked up from her glass and met his eyes when she thanked him, so he would know that she truly meant it. Without his expertise of the island, his ship, the magic bean, even giving up his quarters for his recovery. Her face's expression changed to slight confusion and questioning. He saw what she was thinking about, what she was wondering. She opened her mouth to ask, but before she could speak, he interjected,

"It was for you, Emma. It was all for you." He held her gaze to make sure she heard exactly what he was saying.

She couldn't answer. She didn't know how to answer. She broke eye contact after a few moments, looking up at her top bunk. She had this room of bunk beds to herself and he had given his bed up to her son. The least she could do was offer him a place to sleep.

"You've given so much up…for Henry," she started keeping her eyes between Hook and the top bunk, "the least I could do is offer you the top bunk."

Hook looked up behind him at the top bunk, back at Emma, and then laughed into his bottle of rum before taking another swig. His eyebrow raised as he swallowed the rum and clicked his tongue. Emma's cheeks flushed from offering her bunk to him, bracing herself for the consequences for implying such a situation.

"Aye," he nodded, placing the rum bottle on the table and kicking his boots off. He took off his overcoat and began unhooking his vest. He hung his clothes neatly on the back of the chair and unlocked his hook from its apparatus. Emma stood there watching in fascination at how he did all this with one hand. He was careful to step on the wood frame around Emma's bed, rather than the mattress itself to climb up to the top bunk. He gripped the top bunk with his hand before Emma realized he had no way of swinging himself up to the top since removing his hook. Straddling the bed frame, he looked back at Emma waving his handless arm at her. Emma snapped out of her thoughts and resolved the problem.

"I'll take the top then," she said, immediately cursing the innuendo that came out of her mouth. Hook didn't take her up on the easy joke and stepped off the bed frame. He quickly picked up her pillow from the bottom bunk and exchanged it to the top and then laid down, folding one arm behind his head and looking at Emma. She tried to gauge how to climb up to the top bunk without straddling directly over Hook's head. He smirked at her trying to figure out the puzzle, not that he set it up this way on purpose, but simply because her thinking face was particularly precious.

Emma took her boots off and then paused. There was no way she was going to sleep in a shirt and panties around Hook, but jeans weren't exactly the most comfortable of options. She turned and opened the closet door to her small bag of things and grabbed a pair of men's boxer shorts out. She peeked behind the door to see if Hook was watching and positioned herself purposefully behind the door so he couldn't see. She stripped off her jeans as quickly as possible and slipped on the boxers in one fluid motion. She reappeared from behind the door, closed it behind her and advanced towards the bunk all while trying to figure out the best way to jump up to the top bunk. At least she had two hands to do this, she thought as she propped one leg up on the foot end of the bed Killian was laying in. He was respectfully staring directly above him, fiddling with the buttons on his shirt. Emma wondered if those buttons on his shirt had any purpose beyond decorative since they certainly didn't keep his shirt closed.

As unladylike as it was to step up to the top bunk via hiking her leg up fish netting, at least Killian wasn't watching. He glanced up just as she was reaching over the bunk and caught a glimpse of her long, bare legs sweeping up over top his head. He smiled and closed his eyes. He heard a thunk as she sat on the mattress and furrowed his brows in confusion.

"Agh! This mattress is ripped!" Emma exclaimed, crashing down off the top bunk, globs of fluff following her downward. As more fluffballs floated down around her, Killian sat up making a 'Pfft' in reaction.

"It's been me alone on this ship for a long while, love. I'm sorry not all the accommodations fit your needs," he said, with a slight mocking tone and a raise of an eyebrow. She raised an eyebrow back and him and crossed her arms, surveying the bed he was currently occupying.

"Scooch over," She said bending down to crawl into the bed with him. He put a hand towards the side he was meant to move over to and looked up at her in surprise.

"Is the fun beginning before we get home, love?" he poked at her, smiling and clicking his tongue.

"Ha, bloody, ha," Emma responded shaking her head and climbing onto the small mattress trying forcing him over to the wall side of it.

"Love, I'll have to be on the outside, as captain," he mumbled as he was trying to maneuver around her, "In case I'm needed, if something happens, this is my ship…" He tried to explain his reasoning while trying to get past her to the outside of the mattress. She ended up understanding him halfway through his explanation and climbing over top of him, thus straddling him to get to the wall side of the bed. They both paused in the confusion of figuring out who goes where and it wasn't Killian trying being cheeky and get her into that position. But she had stopped right over top of him and looked down into his eyes. Killian didn't dare move a muscle.

"Hook…" she looked at him, into him, searching for the answer to her question of why and how he had fallen for her, if it was real, if he was serious. Paused in that moment he slowly drew his hand up to tuck her hair behind her ear. He held his hand there behind her ear, slowly brushing her jawline as he drew it back. Emma suddenly realized her arms were rigidly straight on either side of him and she picked up her arm, moving her body to the wall side of the bed and settling next to Killian without touching him.

He drew his arm up around her back and she shimmied closer to be flush against his side. Her arms were folded in towards her but she slowly moved her left arm to go across his torso and she rested her cheek against his ribs. His arm nudged her towards him more and she eventually had her head resting on his chest and her arm across his body.

She was scared. Not scared like she was in Neverland but scared of possibility and uncertainty. Killian brushed her hair away from her face and tilted her chin up to him with his hand.

"It's all alright now, love. Everyone's safe. Cobra Mission complete, aye?" he whispered to her reassuringly and she laughed at his attempts to remember the operation name. Emma closed her eyes and fell asleep with a smile still on her face.


End file.
